


(what a nice surprise) Bring your Alibis

by SpeakerForTheDead



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Identity Reveal, Panic Attacks, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-04 06:25:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14586918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpeakerForTheDead/pseuds/SpeakerForTheDead
Summary: It started the first day of junior year, Peter's slow descent into insanity, with a shadow coming over him and Ned during lunch.“Hey loser,” said Michelle Jones, the new captain of the Academic Decathlon team, “you gonna show up to practices this year?”“I, um am going to try my best” Peter gulped out.Yes gulped. okay? she was intimidating. And tall.“You better,” Michelle retorted, “Liz told me to keep an eye on you cause you're the best on the team for sciencey questions, and as much I hate to boost your ego, she is right about that.”“Yeah I'll be there,” Peter said.‘It's the least I could do for Liz after getting her dad arrested,’ Peter thought determinedly.“Good,” she replied walking off. Just before she reached the doors she turned around and motioning her fingers from her eyes to his mouthed ‘I’ll be watching you’. Threateningly.And that was the end of that or so Peter thought.(He thought wrong)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "normal speech"  
>  _'thought'_

It started the first day of junior year, Peter's slow descent into insanity, with a shadow coming over him and Ned during lunch.

“Hey loser,” said Michelle Jones, the new captain of the Academic Decathlon team, “you gonna show up to practices this year?”

“I, um am going to try my best” Peter gulped out.  _Yes gulped. okay? she was intimidating. And tall._

“You better,” Michelle retorted, “Liz told me to keep an eye on you cause you're the best on the team for sciencey questions, and as much I hate to boost your ego, she is right about that.”

“Yeah I'll be there,” Peter said. ‘ _It's the least I could do for Liz after getting her dad arrested,’ Peter thought determinedly._

“Good,” she replied walking off.  Just before she reached the doors she turned around and motioning her fingers from her eyes to his mouthed, ‘I’ll be watching you’. Threateningly.

And that was the end of that, or so Peter thought.

 

_He thought wrong._

 

Imagine his surprise when Michelle slid into the spot across from Peter at lunch the next day, ignoring the look Peter was giving her that basically amounted to ‘???’.

“I decided it's easier to keep an eye on our ‘ _star player,’_ she said sarcastically, “when I'm not ten feet away on the same table.” never looking up from the thick book she was reading. Peter turned to Ned still with the ‘???’ look on his face and ned just shrugged and went back into the conversation about the lego star destroyer he had bought.

And that was that.

 

 

Michelle seemed to be taking her captaincy seriously.  She also seemed determined to keep him both in good standing on the team and constantly on edge, if the way she’d appear at unexpected times to ask him questions showed anything.

Right as he closed his locker. “Where was the earliest known evidence of smallpox found?”

“Jesus Christ Michelle What are you doing?!?”

“Nope wrong answer.”

“Um. The mummy of Ramses V?”

“Correct”

And she was gone before he could catch his breath or his hammering heart.

 

Coming up beside him in the hallway for a fleeting second. “Who charted first comprehensive list of elements?”

He did not squeak in surprise.  okay? she’s just very quiet and he didn’t hear her coming  

“Antoine Lavoisier.”

“Correct”

 

Cruising past his desk in chemistry and ‘ _ didn’t she sit up front why was she even back here’ _

“What's the principle that says that the more precise any particle's position is determined, the less precisely its momentum can be determined?”

“Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.”

“Correct”

 

“What’s a beam of light has just one frequency?” She asks as he has a mouth full of bad mashed potatoes at lunch  _ ‘and seriously how do they screw up mashed potatoes? It’s just mashed and potatoes’  _ he thinks as he glares at her. The effect of which is ruined by the aforementioned mouth full of potatoes.

“Monochromatic light”

“Wrong”

“Uhh, what?”

“Nah I’m just messing with you nerd that was right.”

“Okayyyy?” Peter said confusedly.

 

“You know you can talk to us like a normal person, right.” Peter says to Michelle one day as Ned looks on with a face that says, ‘Dude you’re on your own she’s scary and can probably kill us’.

Michelle gives him a look that does, in fact, make him quake in his boots,  _ ‘slightly. okay?’ _  And replies with a bored voice like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m not normal. And neither are you two.”

And Peter can’t honestly argue with that so he just shrugs and complains to Ned about his potatoes.

 

She does start joining in their conversations after that though. Usually, she still keeps her nose in the books she reads but she chimes in sometimes with things like,

“Wow, you nerds are pretty obsessed with legos.”

or calls them out for the lack of representation in the original Star Wars movies.

Or one time when their heated whispers about the mugging Peter stopped the night before and got grazed by a bullet in, are too loud she says sarcastically, “Wow what kind of video games are you talking about?”

And Ned stammers our an excuse about Grand Theft Auto while Peter has a heart attack.

 

Suddenly she has their phone numbers and they don’t really text outside of Peter’s, “Hey what was the homework in English this morning?” And Michelle’s, “What has the biggest influence on the weather on the East African coast?”

To which Peter texts back,

**Peter:**  why r u up at 3:27am??

**Michelle (AcaDec):**  Why are you, loser?

**Peter: :/**

 

And of course, she uses proper grammar when she texts.


	2. Any time of year

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all really should watch the Prestige on Netflix it's really good.
> 
> enjoy!

“Is Michelle our friend?” Peter asks said one day in the middle of watching Empire Strikes Back

“Uh yeah, I think so?” Ned said. “I mean she did say her friends could call her MJ and we were part of that group she told.”

“I feel like we should do some friend stuff with her,” Peter says.

“I know! You should tell her you’re Spiderman!” Ned exclaims.

“Woah hey, no Ned we've talked about this we can't just go around telling people I'm Spiderman. You saw how May reacted.”

They both were silent for a moment as they remembered the screaming and crying that happened when May saw Peter in the suit. She grounded Peter for two months but eventually told him, “I wish you weren't doing this and I wish you weren't putting yourself in danger like this, but I know you do it cause you want to help people so I won't make Tony take the suit away as long as you do your homework and don't get injured too much.”

“Anyways,” Peter continued, “She’d probably make fun of me for it ‘Wow loser you can’t even put it on your college applications what's the point?’”

“Yeah dude you're probably right,” Ned said.

"I feel like we should do something with her,” Peter said, thinking out loud.

“Hey let's invite her to movie night on Friday!” he said excitedly.

“Yeah!” Ned agreed, “just you ask her, she kinda intimidates me.”

"And you think she doesn't intimidate me?”

“But you're Spiderman!”

“Fine,” Peter gave him an exasperated look, “and you cant keep using that to make me do things, okay?"

 

The next day at lunch Michelle is engrossed in ‘On Human Bondage' and doesn't even hear Peter call her name the first time.

“Michelle…. Michelle,” Peter tried again trying to get her attention.

“Yes, nerd?”

 

“Do you want to come over and watch a movie with me and Ned tomorrow?” he asks hopefully.

She squints at him, judging the sincerity of his offer.

“Sure… on two conditions, You let me pick the movie. And you have to start calling me Mj.

"Yeah of course!” Peter says excitedly, “so we’ll see you there?”

 

“Yeah, I'll be there, stop looking like an excited puppy loser.” Michelle's deadpanned, going back to her book.

 

As Peter resumed his conversation with Ned he couldn't figure out why he just felt like grinning so much.

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a good day on patrol, Peter thought. He had stopped a mugging. Gave directions to two sets of tourists, retrieved a stolen bicycle and a snatched handbag. And helped a little girl find her mom, the little girl even asked for his autograph! Even with all he had done he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something. Of course, that was when Karen told him, “Peter, you have received a text message from Ned, would you like me to pull it up?”

“Yes please, Karen.”

 **Guy in the Chair:** peter where are u

 **Guy in the Chair:** Peter!! Mj is here where are you

 **Guy in the Chair:** did u forget about movie night??

 **Guy in the Chair:** i told her you went out to get popcorn you better hurry up i cant stall forever

 **Peter:** OMW! I forgit sorry i'll swing over

 **Peter:** forgot*

 

Peter started swinging as fast as he could towards Delmar’s sandwich shop. He swung into the alley next to it and shrugged back on his clothes before running in and grabbing some bags of popcorn before rushing the last couple blocks home.

He jumped on the wall and climbed in through his window, dropping the suit in his closet and walking to the living room where Ned and Michelle _MJ_ were sitting awkwardly on the couch.

“Hey, guys sorry about that I was just out getting popcorn and I got distracted at Delmar's and so was running a little late so yeah.” He gushed out.

“How did you get in?” Mj asked looking at him piercingly, “the door never opened.”

 _Oh shit._ ‘I umm, was in a rush and got distracted and used the fire escape?” Peter said”

“Sure…” MJ said skeptically, “Pop the popcorn in the microwave lets get this movie started.”

When Peter came back from the kitchen with the popcorn and sat between Ned and Mj she started up the movie. She had chosen “The Prestige’ because “I heard it's really good and you can't pass up a movie with both Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman in it.”

Which yeah good point it's hard to pass up both Batman and Wolverine together.

As they make it through a surprisingly interesting movie about 1890’s competing magicians in an increasingly dangerous rivalry, Peter tries to ignore the fact that Michelle's leg is really warm against her and that she smells really citrusy cause, _“That would be weird right? They're just friends and that's stuff he doesn't care about with Ned. Right?”_

By the time they are astounded by the ending plot twist, well they being Peter and Mj cause Ned has been lightly snoring for thirty minutes, Peter is honestly shocked, because it's suddenly 12:30 am and it feels like barely any time passed while he was making sarcastic comments with MJ, and Ned and Mj were throwing popcorn at him.

Because Michelle just slotted into their little group effortlessly.

Despite them trying to convince Mj otherwise cause, “It's dark out and it's dangerous out there you could get mugged.”  Michelle walks back home cause, “Honestly losers, I'm not some damsel in distress I can take care of myself.  And I have pepper spray,”

But before she walks out the door Peter says, “Hey Mj. Text me when you get home alright? So I, I mean we, know you're safe.” and Mj honestly looks a little touched that they care, as she smiles softly and says, “alright nerds,”

so Peter makes a silent vow that they'll be the best friends to her they can be because she seems unused to having them.

And if he follows her home as Spidey to make sure she's alright,

well, no one needs to know that.

 


	3. Up Ahead in the Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Michelle and Spiderman meet.

It had been a long month for Peter.  As much as he enjoyed being friends with Mj, and really he did, it was getting hard to balance school, hanging out with Mj, hanging out with Ned and May, working with Tony in his workshop, and actually being Spiderman. He felt like he was neglecting his ‘friendly neighborhood superhero’ job so he had told Mj he had an important Stark Internship thing to go to so he couldn’t hang out tonight.  And had spent the last six hours busting minor drug deals, muggings, and helping the little guys.

Right before he was about to swing home he heard a distant shout and decided to check it out.

As he quickly webbed his way over to the disturbance he saw a strangely familiar head of hair get grabbed in an alleyway by two thugs.

Dropping in with a, “Hey guys this looks like a cozy get together,  but how about you let the lady go.”

One of the thugs tightened his grip on the bag and gritted out, “Fuck off Spiderman.”

"Well, that’s just rude,” Peter said glancing at the other thug holding a knife to mj.

 _WAIT.  Mj??? What is Mj doing here?_ He thought to do a double take.

“Michelle! I mean, citizen.” He squawked trying to disguise his voice, “don’t worry ma’am I’ll get you right out of there.”

He quickly shot a web at the thug's knife and stuck his hand to the wall. And Michelle turned around and kneed him in the balls and sprayed him with pepper spray from her keychain.

Peter had just enough time to think _‘that was badass’_ before he turned and roundhouse kicked the other guy six feet back and caught MJ's bag before it could hit the ground.

“Here you go, miss!’ He said, surprisingly out of breath for such a short conflict. Maybe it was nerves.

“I got your bag!”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” she said snarkily, grabbing it and checking that everything was still there

“Well thanks for your help Spiderman, I would have hated to use up all my pepper spray on those three idiots,” she said pointing a thumb back at the webbed up would be muggers in the alleyway.

“What were you doing in that alleyway! That's like asking to get mugged.” Peter exclaimed, but it came out sounding harsher than he meant it to.

“Wow. Victim blaming, Spiderman? That's not like you.” She said raising a disapproving eyebrow.

But you don't know me so how do you know what I am like.” Peter retorted in a surprisingly steady voice considering the situation he thought. He was constantly worried that Michelle would recognize him and tear off his mask.

“I meant from you, like a Hero.”

“... thanks.”

“Was that sarcasm,” she asked.

“No! No that wasn't sarcasm. It just means a lot that you think, I mean people think, that I am a hero.”

“But you are a hero,” stated Michelle determiNedly, “ in my opinion, you’re more of a hero than the major Avengers, you keep an eye on the little guy.”

 

Peter was astounded and ecstatic, ecstatic because someone really got the good he felt he was doing as a friendly neighborhood Spiderman, and astounded because that was probably the nicest thing Mj had said to him. Ever.

 

“Thank you he choked out, “you should probably get on your way though miss, I’d hate to have to have to save such a wonderful person such as yourself from a mugger again tonight,” he said with a wink of his mask.

 _Wait wait wait. Was he flirting? With Michelle!? Where did that come from?’_ he thought.

“Of course,” Michelle said, and  Peter couldn't tell if it was a trick of the almost nonexistent light but her cheeks looked a little red,

 _‘Must be from the stress of the mugging.’_ Peter mused.

“Have a good night!” He called, vaulting up to the nearest rooftop.planning to keep an eye on her on her way home so no more incidents happen.

“You too spiderbutt,” Michelle called back, starting her walk home.

As she continued her journey home she was deep in thought, because, _‘He's really familiar for some reason, and I feel like I should recognize his voice.’_ she mused internally.

 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The next day at school Michelle came up to Peter's locker as he was putting books into it.

“Hey loser, you know Spiderman right?” she asked him.

“Yeah I see him at the Stark Internship TM"

“Um, Did you just trademark a phrase verbally?” she asked amusedly.

“Yes,” he mumbled.

“You fucking dork,” she laughed.

As Peter was reflecting on how nice MJ's laugh was, she continued, “could you tell him thank you for me? I didn’t get the chance after the mugging yesterday.”

“Mugging!?” Ned exclaimed, coming up and giving Peter a look that said, _‘Why didn't you tell your Guy in the Chair about this.’_

“Yeah, Spiderman helped me out in a mugging yesterday, not that I needed any help,” Michelle replied.

“Of course, Ned and Peter said in unison with a grin.

“But yeah Peter, next time you see him give him my thanks.” 

“Of course,” Peter said, as Ned gave him an odd look.

“Alright, later Nerds,” Mj said walking off to classes as the bell rung.

 

“You saved her as Spiderman?” Ned whispered frantically.

“Yeah, she was getting mugged by two guys last night.”

“Damn, that's to cool.”

“No it wasn't, she could have been really hurt if I wasn't there,” Peter retorted.

“Still, badass.”

Yeah.”

Why are you smiling?” Ned asked.

“She called me a hero, Ned.”

“Wow”

“I know right? That really means a lot to me coming from Mj.” Peter said.

“You should tell her you're Spiderman,” ned said excitedly.

“No.”

“But then yo-”

“I said no, Ned. and that's final.” Peter said sharply.

 

“I don't want her getting hurt because of me.”


End file.
